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THE FLURIS OF OBERDORF PARISH, SWITZERLAND |
| In the Roman Catholic parish of
Oberdorf in the Canton of Solothurn resided as early as the 1590's's and
possibly earlier a significant number of Fluris. Oberdorf parish was
German speaking and encompassed the towns of Oberdorf, Lommiswil,
Langendorf, and Bellach. While there is evidence of a Fluri presence in
all four towns, the largest concentration, by far, was in Lommiswil,
where the number of Fluri families closely approximates that of the town
of Matzendorf, which was not all that far away. Most of the Fluri names
in Oberdorf and Langendorf were female, suggesting that these Fluri
women probably moved to these towns upon marriage. Some male Fluris do
appear in Bellach. So numerous were these early Fluris in Oberdorf
parish, primarily Lommiswil, that without the help of a trained
genealogist spending significant time with local records it is
impossible to sort them out. The Christian names of both the male and
female Fluris are so similar to that of their Matzendorf counterparts
(Jacob, Johann, Barbara, Maria, Ursus, Magdelana, Conrad, and Joseph)
that it is tempting to see some sort of relationship. These,
admittedly, are all common Swiss and German names, however.
Other early family names appearing in Oberdorf parish, some of which show up in Matzendorf, are Holzhaus, Hug, Höggerin, Hofsteller, Fralicker, Miller, Greder, Bosch, Schad, Schürer, Von Burg, and Rokeli. The name "Joseph Fluri" in this parish appears with some frequency around the time that Joseph Flory, who sailed to America in 1733, was born. However, none of the Oberdorf Fluris has children to match that of the American Joseph, and none seems to match his exact birthdate, so Oberdorf parish must be ruled out as Joseph Flory's birthplace. The records themselves go back to 1593, and the first Fluri name to appear was that of Anna Fluri, who was born to Peter Fluri and his wife, Anna, on February 16, 1596 in Lommiswil. Another Anna Fluri, wife to Johannes Von Burg, gave birth to a son, Johannes, on August 18th of that year, also in Lommiswil. There are also early references in the parish to Jacob Fluri, Bartli Fluri, Hans Fluri, and Casper Fluri, either as parents or as godparents, in the next decade or so. Below are some beginning genealogies of later Fluri families, presumably descendants of the above, who first begin to appear in the church records around 1651. There are at least 5 to 6 other Fluri families from the 1650's, who are not represented below. In later marriages, the Fluris seem to have been especially connected to the Schad and, to a lesser extent, the Von Burg families. Anton Fluri notes that: (1) Early "Flöris" were known in Selzach and Bettlach from
about 1430 to 1500 This information is provided only as a brief sketch with the hope that someone can fill in at least some of the threads. |
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FAMILY 1 Johan Caspar Fluri and Elizabetha Married 1651 Children
FAMILY II Johann Jacob Fluri and Elizabetha Married in Lommiswil on Jan. 26, 1655 Children
FAMILY III Ursus Fluri and Ursula Married in 1650
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